Current-voltage characteristics of quasi-one-dimensional superconductors: An S-curve in the constant voltage regime

Applying a constant voltage to superconducting nanowires we find that its IV-characteristic exhibits an unusual S-behavior. This behavior is the direct consequence of the dynamics of the superconducting condensate and of the existence of two different critical currents: j_{c2} at which the pure superconducting state becomes unstable and j_{c1}<j_{c2} at which the phase slip state is realized in the system.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, replaced with minor change

Immanent Justice Reasoning by Spatial Proximity

Immanent justice reasoning involves causally attributing someone’s bad outcome to their prior immoral actions. Building on the idea that causality is mentally linked with spatial proximity, we investigated whether such reasoning might lead participants to spatially bind together immoral actions and bad outcomes. Across 4 experiments (N = 553 Mechanical Turk workers), participants positioned sentences describing other people’s bad (vs. good) outcomes closer in space to previous immoral behaviours. This effect was observed both when the position of the initial action remained in a fixed location and when it “chased” the outcome across the screen. Importantly, we also found that this spatial positioning of immoral actions and bad outcomes is mediated by perceived deservingness of the outcome and is not merely due to perceived similarity of events. These findings suggest that perceived deservingness biases the spatial proximity of representations of others’ random bad outcomes and their prior immoral actions

An Observational Study of the First Experience with Bevacizumab for the Treatment of Patients with Recurrent High-Grade Glioma in Two Belgian University Hospitals

Background. Bevacizumab (BEV), a humanized immunoglobulin G1 monoclonal antibody that inhibits VEGF has demonstrated activity against recurrent high-grade gliomas (HGG) in phase II clinical trials. Patients and Methods. Data were collected from patients with recurrent HGG who initiated treatment with BEV outside a clinical trial protocol at two Belgian university hospitals. Results. 19 patients (11 M/8 F) were administered a total of 138 cycles of BEV (median 4, range 1–31). Tumor response assessment by MRI was available for 15 patients; 2 complete responses and 3 partial responses for an objective response rate of 26% for the intent to treat population were observed on gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted images; significant regressions on T2/FLAIR were documented in 10 out of 15 patients (67%). A reduced uptake on PET was documented in 3 out of 4 evaluable patients. The six-month progression-free survival was 21% (95% CI 2.7–39.5). Two patients had an ongoing tumor response and remained free from progression after 12 months of BEV treatment. Conclusions. The activity and tolerability of BEV were comparable to results from previous prospective phase II trials. Reduced uptake on PET suggests a metabolic response in addition to an antiangiogenic effect in some cases with favorable clinical outcome

Causality in collective filtering

In this paper, we describe a proposal for improving the practice of web-based collective filtering, in particular for what regards discussions and selection of issues about policy, based on the intuitive concept of causality. Causality, especially when presented in visual form, is especially suited to the task since it is intuitive to understand and to use, and at the same time, it's rich enough to create a semantic network between the representations of real world facts. We give some examples of the suggested system workflow and we present guidelines for its implementation

Mind the Gap: Investigating Toddlers’ Sensitivity to Contact Relations in Predictive Events

Toddlers readily learn predictive relations between events (e.g., that event A predicts event B). However, they intervene on A to try to cause B only in a few contexts: When a dispositional agent initiates the event or when the event is described with causal language. The current studies look at whether toddlers’ failures are due merely to the difficulty of initiating interventions or to more general constraints on the kinds of events they represent as causal. Toddlers saw a block slide towards a base, but an occluder prevented them from seeing whether the block contacted the base; after the block disappeared behind the occluder, a toy connected to the base did or did not activate. We hypothesized that if toddlers construed the events as causal, they would be sensitive to the contact relations between the participants in the predictive event. In Experiment 1, the block either moved spontaneously (no dispositional agent) or emerged already in motion (a dispositional agent was potentially present). Toddlers were sensitive to the contact relations only when a dispositional agent was potentially present. Experiment 2 confirmed that toddlers inferred a hidden agent was present when the block emerged in motion. In Experiment 3, the block moved spontaneously, but the events were described either with non-causal (“here’s my block”) or causal (“the block can make it go”) language. Toddlers were sensitive to the contact relations only when given causal language. These findings suggest that dispositional agency and causal language facilitate toddlers’ ability to represent causal relationships.John Templeton Foundation (#12667)James S. McDonnell Foundation (Causal Learning Collaborative Initiative)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Career Award (# 0744213

Separate cortical stages in amodal completion revealed by functional magnetic resonance adaptation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Objects in our environment are often partly occluded, yet we effortlessly perceive them as whole and complete. This phenomenon is called visual amodal completion. Psychophysical investigations suggest that the process of completion starts from a representation of the (visible) physical features of the stimulus and ends with a completed representation of the stimulus. The goal of our study was to investigate both stages of the completion process by localizing both brain regions involved in processing the physical features of the stimulus as well as brain regions representing the completed stimulus.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using fMRI adaptation we reveal clearly distinct regions in the visual cortex of humans involved in processing of amodal completion: early visual cortex – presumably V1 -processes the local contour information of the stimulus whereas regions in the inferior temporal cortex represent the completed shape. Furthermore, our data suggest that at the level of inferior temporal cortex information regarding the original local contour information is not preserved but replaced by the representation of the amodally completed percept.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings provide neuroimaging evidence for a multiple step theory of amodal completion and further insights into the neuronal correlates of visual perception.</p

CMS physics technical design report : Addendum on high density QCD with heavy ions

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